1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications, and more particularly, to a system and method for enabling one or both parties of a telephone call to view contents of a source computer via a computer network during the telephone call.
2. Background of the Invention
Currently, when a calling party and a called party are engaged in a telephone conversation, the communication between them is limited to the exchange of their voices. Exchange of video images may take place if each of them has a video telephone set that is equipped with a camera and a display device. Most users have not found such video telephone sets useful, however. For example, many users find the video quality to be poor or unacceptable. As a result, video telephone sets have been underutilized.
In fact, the entire telephone system is underutilized when one party of a telephone call puts the other party on hold. It is common for a calling party (e.g., a customer of a business entity) to stay on hold for an extended period of time when a called party (e.g., a customer service representative of the business entity) is handling a large number of calls. As the calling party stays on hold, valuable time of the calling party and scarce telecommunication resources of the telephone network are being wasted. Some businesses provide music or special announcements to calling parties who are on hold. Such systems, however, are not visually presented and are not generally interactive.
The difficulties associated with effective utilization of computer-telephone technology is discussed in “An Introduction to Computer Telephony,” authorized by Carl R. Strathmeyer, and published in IEEE Communications Magazine, May 1996. This article is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that will more fully utilize the telephone network and allow users to better utilize their time. Specifically, there is a need for a system and method that enables one or both parties of a telephone call to view contents of a source computer via a computer network during the telephone call.